MUNICIPALITY DEMOLISHES OLD CITY HOME

C O N F I D E N T I A L JERUSALEM 002542 SIPDIS SIPDIS NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE, NSC FOR ABRAMS/SINGH/PASCUAL E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/12/2017 TAGS: KWBG PBTS IS PHUM SUBJECT: MUNICIPALITY DEMOLISHES OLD CITY HOME REF: A. JERUSALEM 2500 ¶B. JERUSALEM 2476 Classified By: Consul General Jake Walles, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (SBU) The Jerusalem Municipality demolished a Palestinian home in Jerusalem's Old City for lack of permits on December ¶11. About 100 police cordoned off the site and removed the family's belongings while contractors demolished the fully-built, 12x25 meter house off al-Wad Street in the Muslim Quarter. Kawaje family members told PolOff that they own all the land where the house was built, but the Municipality refused to grant a building permit due to a zoning restriction that prohibits new residential structures in the area. ¶2. (C) Meir Margolit, Israeli Committee Against Home Demolition (ICAHD) coordinator (and former Meretz city councilman),told PolOff on December 11 that the Old City demolition reflects an annual end-of-year uptick in demolitions as the Municipality exhausts its demolitions budget by year's end. He said the Municipality plans to demolish homes in East Jerusalem's Bayt Hanina and Jabal Muqabr neighborhoods in the next few days. WALLES